The Use and Abuse of Sir Karl Popper

Abstract

Karl Popper has been one of the few philosophers of sciences who has influenced scientists. I evaluate Popper's influence on our understanding of evolutionary theory from his earliest publications to the present. Popper concluded that three sorts of statements in evolutionary biology are not genuine laws of nature. I take him to be right on this score. Popper's later distinction between evolutionary theory as a metaphysical research program and as a scientific theory led more than one scientist to misunderstand his position on evolutionary theory as a scientific theory. In his later work Popper also introduced what he took to be “improvements” of evolutionary theory. Thus far these improvements have had almost no influence on evolutionary biology. I conclude by examining the influence of Popper on the reception of cladistic analysis.

Kantorovich, A.: 1989, ‘A Genotype-Phenotype Model for the Growth of Theories and the Selection Cycle in Science’, in K. Hahlwed and C.A. Hooker (eds.), Issues in Evolutionary Epistemology, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, pp. 171-184.